D • I • E,  Anika Rutkofsky. Red dress: Sylvie Rohrer.
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. Red dress: Sylvie Rohrer. | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021

What is »D • I • E« about? Is it about a woman? About dying? About grammar? About lines, dots and letters? All these answers are correct – and all the questions obsolete.

About the production

All the senses are in uproar. In an experimental opera space, dynamic charcoal drawings by Albert Oehlen collide and intertwine with the dense poetic texts of Rainald Goetz. D • I • E is a place of irresistible transformation. Michael Wertmüller dispatches three singers, a rapper and an actor in search of clear form and meaning in words, bodies and sounds that are consistently elusive. A string quartet, a »Hammmond Avantcore« trio, electronics, percussion and garage punk merge into an orchestra celebrating, negating and dissolving these styles as Wertmüller throws open the doors to an ecstatic trance of excess.

In a multiverse with no particular direction, Thomas Stammer transforms thirteen drawings into time. The music moves them tirelessly from one shape to another in the form of holographic sculptures. On stage, they fleetingly encounter living bodies. A journey that never arrives, an art that defies categories and definitions – this is the vision that Wertmüller, Oehlen and Goetz share.

And what is D • I • E about? Is it about a woman? About dying? About grammar? About lines, dots and letters? All answers are correct – and all questions obsolete.

A Ruhrtriennale production.

D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. In white dress: Caroline Melzer.
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. In white dress: Caroline Melzer. | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. From left: Sarah Pagin, Sylvie Rohrer
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. From left: Sarah Pagin, Sylvie Rohrer | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. On View: Christina Daletska
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. On View: Christina Daletska | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. In the front: Dirigent Titus Engel. In the back: Sylvie Rohrer.
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. In the front: Dirigent Titus Engel. In the back: Sylvie Rohrer. | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. Asasello Quartett
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. Asasello Quartett | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. On the microphone: Catnapp. In the back: Steamboat Switzerland.
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. On the microphone: Catnapp. In the back: Steamboat Switzerland. | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. Band: Steamboat Switzerland.
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. Band: Steamboat Switzerland. | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. Conductor: Titus Engel
D • I • E, Anika Rutkofsky. Conductor: Titus Engel | © Volker Beushausen, Ruhrtriennale 2021
Barbara Frey talking with composer Michael Wertmüller
Director Anika Rutkofksy about the Kraftzentrale as venue for the Ruhrtriennale I Sound piece: Fritz Hauser

From the magazine

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